Forex Previews

Week Ahead – Japanese data to dominate quiet holiday week

Posted on December 23, 2016 at 11:25 am GMT

As most Western markets close for the Christmas and New Year celebrations, Japanese data will come under the spotlight next week. In addition to key data releases, the Bank of Japan’s meeting minutes and summary will be watched too, while there will also be some US data to keep traders busy. Most major markets will be closed on Monday for the Boxing Day holiday but the Bank of Japan’s minutes of the October/November policy meeting might attract some coverage. However, [..]

Week Ahead – Bank of Japan policy meeting and RBA meeting minutes in focus

Posted on December 16, 2016 at 1:41 pm GMT

After a busy week which was dominated by central bank meetings that included the Federal Reserve and Bank of England, markets will also await another major central bank meeting next week – the Bank of Japan. The Fed’s highly anticipated meeting culminated with a decision on Wednesday to raise the Fed funds rate by 25 basis points as expected but the US central bank surprised the markets with a revision to its rate hiking cycle and indicated it would raise [..]

Forex News – Dollar breaks above 117 yen as Fed raises rates, ups outlook

Posted on December 14, 2016 at 9:50 pm GMT

The US Federal Reserve announced a hike of 25 bps in its benchmark rate at its policy meeting today, in a decision that was widely anticipated by financial markets. The move is the first increase in 2016 and the first since last December’s historic decision to raise rates for the first time since the financial crisis. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members were unanimous in voting in favour of raising the federal funds rate to a target range of 0.50-0.75% [..]

Forex News – Sterling rises after UK inflation jumps to 2-year high in November

Posted on December 13, 2016 at 2:41 pm GMT

The British pound was boosted after data showed headline inflation in the UK rose at the fastest pace in two years in November. CPI rose to 1.2 percent year-on-year in November from 0.9 percent in October, being boosted by rising gasoline and clothing prices. Sterling weakness has been another factor behind the rise in consumer price inflation. Today’s reading was a little firmer than expected. Most economists forecasted an increase to 1.1 percent. The core rate rose to 1.4 percent from [..]

Forex News – Oil jumps 5% after first non-OPEC cut since 2001

Posted on December 12, 2016 at 4:43 pm GMT

Crude oil prices surged to 17-month highs on Monday after non-OPEC countries reached an agreement with OPEC members to cut oil output on Saturday. The deal is the first joint coordination between OPEC and non-OPEC states since 2001 and involves cutting output by 1.758 million barrels per day. It becomes effective as of January 1, 2017. OPEC members had already agreed on November 30 to cut the bloc’s output by 1.2 million bpd for the first time since 2008. It followed [..]

Forex News – China reports rising consumer and producer prices in November

Posted on December 9, 2016 at 3:16 pm GMT

China’s economy has shown signs of recovery as inflation rose in November, driven higher by pick-up in industrial activity. Producer prices rose the highest in five years last month as a result of the impact of rising industrial commodities prices globally. China is the world’s second largest economy and has a heavy manufacturing sector. It is a major consumer of raw materials such as coal, steel and copper. The producer price index jumped 3.3 per cent year-on-year in November, the most [..]

Week Ahead – All eyes on Fed; Bank of England, SNB and Norges Bank meet too

Posted on December 9, 2016 at 2:25 pm GMT

After this week’s surprise actions by the ECB, markets will be hoping that central bank meetings over the next seven days won’t stray too far from expectations. Apart from the Fed’s much anticipated FOMC meeting, central bankers from the UK, Switzerland and Norway will also be gathering for their regular policy meetings. In terms of data, inflation and retail sales figures for the UK and the US will be the main highlight. Japanese business outlook expected to improve in Q4 [..]

Forex News – ECB surprises by extending QE to December 2017 and slowing pace of bond purchases

Posted on December 8, 2016 at 4:17 pm GMT

The European Central Bank held its final policy meeting of this year and unveiled new parameters in its quantitative easing programme. Interest rates remained unchanged as expected. The main takeaway of today’s policy announcement was that the central bank would maintain monetary policy until its scheduled end date in March 2017 but decided to extend the asset purchase program beyond this date with some tweaks to it. The euro initially surged on the news to hit a one-month high of [..]

Forex News – Australian GDP data casts doubt on RBA’s rosy outlook; aussie slides on negative growth

Posted on December 7, 2016 at 11:55 am GMT

Australia’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the third quarter of the year as business investment and construction output deteriorated more sharply than anticipated. Australia’s GDP declined by 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in the three months to September – the first contraction in 5½ years. Expectations were for the economy to expand by 0.3% q/q and it compares with an upwardly revised figure of 0.6% in the prior quarter. On a year-on-year basis, growth slowed from an impressive 3.1% rate in the second quarter [..]

Forex News – Euro makes strong rebound as initial panic over Italian ‘No’ vote subsides

Posted on December 5, 2016 at 12:17 pm GMT

Italians overwhelmingly rejected plans to reform the country’s constitution on Sunday, forcing the resignation of the Italian prime minister and triggering a fresh political crisis for the Eurozone. Voters decided against reducing the power of the Senate that would have simplified the process for the government to pass through legislation. However, the outcome of the vote was seen more as a rejection of the Prime Minister’s economic policies than the proposed changes to the constitution itself. A ‘No’ vote was [..]

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